Business License, Commercial Parking, Transit Occupancy Tax, Sales Tax, and Property Tax Services

The City of South San Francisco (City) is seeking proposals from qualified firms (Consultant(s)) to preform all business license, commercial parking, transit occupancy, sales tax and property tax services, including administration, reporting, and auditing. Respondents can bid on any or all of the requested services but must provide a combined proposal and the City retains the right to select only part of the offering.

All proposals must be in the format specified. Responding firms shall be solely responsible for any expenses incurred in preparing proposals in response to this request.

The City may select based on proposal alone or may narrow the field to the top firms based on strength of proposal, and then conduct interviews to finalize a selection(s). The City will then initiate contract negotiations with the selected Consultant(s). Pending successful negotiations, the City will have the Consultant(s) execute the City’s Standard Professional Services Agreement (Attachment A). There is no expressed or implied obligation for the City to reimburse responding firms for any expenses incurred in preparing proposals in response to this request. Materials submitted by respondents are subject to public inspection under the California Public Records Act (Government Code Sec. 6250 et seq.), unless the information is labeled confidential and proprietary.

It is the intent of the City to award the contract for an initial three-year period with the option to renew for two successive one-year periods at the sole discretion of the City. The City desires a pricing schedule for the entire contract period, with a preset inflation factor. Proposals will be considered only from parties that are free of all obligation and interests that may conflict with the best interest of the City and have the capacity to provide services on a timely basis.

The City of South San Francisco is a General Law city with a population of approximately 70,000 residents that grows to more than 100,000 during business hours. South San Francisco is strategically located on the west shore of the San Francisco Bay, in northern San Mateo County, 10 miles south of San Francisco. The City is also located along the Bay Area's main transportation routes, including U.S. Route 101, Interstate 280, Caltrain, BART, San Francisco Bay Ferry, and the San Francisco International airport.

The City of South San Francisco is a full-service city with 12 City Departments including Police; Fire; Parks and Recreation; Public Works; Economic and Community Development; City Attorney; Library; Finance; Information Technology; Human Resources; City Clerk; and Office of the City Manager. The City has a Council-City Manager form of government with more than 550 full-time regular employees.

The City of South San Francisco proudly remains “The Industrial City”, a reflection of its steel mill and ship building past. In recent years, the City has been redefined to reflect the innovative, entrepreneurial and industrious spirit which South San Francisco is well known for.

South San Francisco is home to the largest biotech campuses in the world, with more than 20,000 life science workers in over 250 bioscience companies with 12 million square feet of office/R&D facilities – and additional of 9 million square feet of new R&D facilities in the development pipeline. The City is known as the “Birthplace of Biotechnology”.

South San Francisco enjoys a high quality of life with an extensive public parks system, active library and learning programming and a dynamic, engaged community making South San Francisco a great place to live, learn, work and play.

The City is governed by a five-member elected City Council. Five members are elected to four-year Council terms. Elections are held in even-numbered years. Three members are elected together, and the other two are elected in the next election. In the 2020 election year, the City Council moved to district elections. The Mayor and Vice Mayor are selected by the Council from its members in non-election years. During election years, the Mayor and Vice Mayor are selected after election results have been tabulated.